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CN Tower
Around the world, the CN Tower defines the Toronto skyline. In Forever Knight, it is the ubiquitous symbol of the city, indicating to viewers everywhere that the series is set in Toronto. The CN Tower appears in the opening credits of every episode. It thrusts skyward in many of the cityscapes employed to divide scenes. In addition, it has a particular role in the Season Two episode "Baby, Baby", whose climax takes place at the top of the tower. "Baby, Baby" The climactic scenes of the episode "Baby, Baby" take place at the top of the CN Tower, presumably at the Sky Pod level. Serena, a vampire whom Nick Knight brought over in the 1920s as the result of a misunderstanding, has come to Toronto in the hope of finding a way to regain her mortality. There is folk lore within the vampire community claiming that this happens to female vampires if they become pregnant. Ordinarily, this is impossible; but it is reputed to be capable of happening with a "very special sort of man" if intercourse occurs "higher than high...at the peak of a perfectly full moon". Serena believes that the CN Tower qualifies as "higher than high", and that she has a chance of pregnancy—and mortality—with a man who has two Y chromosomes (i.e. XYY rather than the normal XY). To this end, she seduces a construction worker, Calvin Trilling, who has the appropriate chromosomal abnormality. Nick becomes involved, because Trilling is a murder suspect, and Serena has to break him out of the holding cells at the 96th Precinct in order to complete the ritual. While Nick pursues Serena by getting information from LaCroix, his partner, Don Schanke goes to her apartment, where a picture of the CN Tower inspires him to suggest it as an answer to Nick's question, "What's ‘higher than high’?" Nick therefore flies to the Tower. Guilt about bringing Serena across persuades him to let her complete the ritual, though it fails to have the desired effect of restoring her mortality. Was the folklore false? Was the XYY chromosomal abnormality not the "special" characteristic required in the man? Or was the CN Tower not "higher than high"? As Schanke arrives with reinforcments at the base of the Tower, all Nick can do is let Serena dispose of Trilling's corpse. From Schanke's perspective, the lead to the CN Tower had failed to pan out. All he can report to Captain Cohen is the theory that Trilling actually went, not to the Tower, but to nearby Union Station, in order to escape from Toronto by train. The CN Tower By the 1970s, the Toronto area had increasingly poor radio and television reception as a result of a construction boom that had transformed the previously low skyline to one dotted with skyscrapers. This caused interference with the transmission of electro-magnetic radiation, particularly microwaves. The CN Tower was therefore built as a telecommunications tower. Construction began on 26 February 1973 and was completed 2 April 1975. Since the Tower went into operation, the Toronto area has had some of the clearest reception in North America. However, the Canadian National (CN) also wanted to demonstrate the strength of Canadian industry by building a tower taller than any other in the world. Concrete was poured onto a slipform which moved continuously upward an average of 22 feet a day from Monday to Friday each week. Through the pour, the vertical accuracy of the tower was maintained by comparing the slipform's location to massive plumb-bobs hanging from it. The tower varies from true vertical accuracy by only 29 millimetres (1.1 in). As the tower narrowed towards the top, daily progress was visible to onlookers on the ground. It is still possible to see the horizontal lines in the concrete that indicate where pouring stopped at the end of each week. Timing was critical, since "Olga", a giant Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane helicopter with a 72-foot wingspan, was contracted to come to Toronto to lift the sections of the Tower’s antenna into place. At a height of 553.33m (1,815 ft., 5 inches), the CN Tower was the World's Tallest Free-Standing Structure at the time of construction. It retained that title for over thirty years. There are four observation levels, of which the highest is the Sky Pod, a public observation deck at 447 m (1,465 ft.). The CN Tower is situated in the Railway Lands just south of Front Street, very close to Union Station. See also CN Tower FAQ External links * CN Tower official website * Wikipedia article on the CN Tower * Wikipedia article on the Canadian National Railway Category:Locations Category:Toronto